Good morning Boghall!

Please note that this cookbook refers to Glow Meet using Marratech.  Glow Meet is now delivered over Adobe Connect which offers enhanced functionality.  To find out more about Glow Meet using Adobe Connect click here.  The principles around the benefits of Glow Meet are the same regardless of the technology used for Glow Meet.

Overview

Ann Duncan is Headteacher of Boghall Primary school in Bathgate, West Lothian. The school is twinned with a school in Texas, and both Ann and teacher Kathryn Coutts have visited the school. There they saw a method of whole school communication that they loved so much they decided to find a way of doing something similar for themselves.

Context

In Texas, the school has a ‘Good Morning TV’ programme which is used to communicate with everyone in the school. Ann was really keen to find a way of doing something similar in Boghall. After discussion with Kathryn and other staff, she realised that Glow was the answer!

In March this year, “Good Morning Boghall” was born!

At 8:50am every Monday morning, a team of Primary 7 pupils runs “Good Morning Boghall!”. Via Glow Meet, they share news, give information on events events and celebrate success with everyone in the school. Every teacher and pupil watches the broadcast live from their own classroom, with the Glow Meet displayed in full screen mode on their interactive whiteboards.

Each broadcast has a similar format to a morning TV breakfast programme and a  team of four Primary 7 pupils (different pupils each week) are wholly responsible for the planning, organisation and delivery of the programme.

On the Friday before, the pupils speak to the Headteacher to find out the news she would like to share with everyone. They then visit each class to find out their news. Also, they find out which pupils will celebrate their birthday the following week. Additionally, they gather information about local events and news.

One pupil is given responsibility for delivering the weather forecast for the week ahead during the broadcast. That person must research the week’s weather on the Sunday evening, to ensure it is as up to date and accurate on the Monday morning.

On the morning of the broadcast, the pupils do all of the technical preparation – logging on to Glow, joining the Glow Meet and ensuring the web cam and microphone are working.

Some of the pupils who have been involved in organising and presenting the programmes talk about the preparation and planning involved in the following video:

Pupils: Preparation (1:20)

On a different note, the teachers themselves had to be prepared, by initially ensuring they had their Glow username and password, and ensuring the knew how to access and join the Glow Meet meeting room.

The Broadcast

For the broadcast, two pupils take on the role of newsreader.
For this, they use two laptops.
One laptop is the one where the pupils are logged on to Glow and are using the Glow Meet meeting room to broadcast from. The second laptop sits behind this first one and hosts the script for the news items, acting as an autocue. The script is written entirely by the pupils, based on the news information they receive from the Headteacher and classes.

There is a weather map on a stand that the weather presenter uses to discuss the weather for the week ahead, using the information they have researched the night before.

 
The other main slot in the programme is the birthday slot.
Here, any pupil who has a birthday in the coming week, comes up to the web cam in the P7 classroom and says their name, class and what age they will be. They do this whilst wearing a special birthday hat!

At the start of each broadcast, the pupils put up a question on the shared whiteboard. This is a very general question that is accessible to pupils of all ages. For example, they were asked in one session, ‘Where do worms go in the winter?’. The pupils watching in their classrooms try to find out the answer to the question before the end of the Meet, giving the whole school a level of involvement. When a pupil or class thinks they know the answer, they type it into the ‘chat’ section in the Glow Meet Room.

Occassionally, other items have been included in the programme. For example, when a teacher from the twin school in Texas visited Boghall, the pupils interviewed her during the Glow Meet.

The Learning

The pupils have learned a huge amount through taking part in the broadcasts.

They have been introduced to the world of the media, and learned a great deal about the amount of work that goes into producing and presenting a TV news programme. For example, before this, they did not realise that the presenters read from an autocue.

The pupils talk about some of the things they’ve learned:

Pupils: What we’ve learned (0:28)

Since they have been completely responsible for all the technical set up and preparation of the news items, the pupils have learned about the importance of taking responsibility. There have been a couple of occasions where this became very relevant! – One week, the person responsible for doing the weather, forgot to do the research. As a result, there was no weather forecast that week. The pupils discussed the impact that ‘forgetting’ would have had had this been a real TV news programme; on another occasion, one of the news readers forgot that they were due on air, and ran in from the football field with seconds to spare, only narrowly managing to be in the presenting chair in time!

The pupils talk about some of the problems they encountered and overcame in the following video:

Pupils: Problems encountered (1:09)

Through their involvement in the Glow Meet broadcasts, the pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. Amongst others, they include:

 Literacy and English

ENG 2-03a I can recognise how the features of spoken language can help in communication, and I can use what I learn.  I can recognise different features of my own and others’ spoken language.  

• share information, experiences and opinions
• explain processes and ideas
• identify issues raised and summarise main points or findings
• clarify points by asking questions or by asking others to say more.

LIT 2-10a / LIT 3-10a I am developing confidence when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning. I can communicate in a clear, expressive way and I am learning to select and organise resources independently.

LIT 2-15a I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.

LIT 1-20a/LIT 2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.

LIT 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.

LIT 2-28a I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.

Technologies

TCH 2-04a I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.

TCH 2-04b I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.

 
Next steps

The pupils have been discussing how they might alter the broadcast format. They have talked about the possibility of having a guest slot, where they might interview someone – perhaps a pupil or teacher who has been involved in an interesting event, or a member of the local community.  As well as this, they have discussed including additional news items, such as having a sports presenter slot to discuss school football team selection and results. They are also keen to include a jingle at the start of the show. They have big plans!

Ingredients

So what needed to be done for Boghall to be able to run the “Good Morning Boghall” Glow Meet broadcasts?

- Have a Glow Group at school level
- Ensure all staff were members of the Glow Group
- Add the Glow Meet web part to the Glow Group
- Create the meeting room
- Have a web cam and microphone for the presenters
- Have speakers in the classrooms watching and listening to the Glow Meet

In the following videos, we will find out how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above

How to create a Glow Group (2:55)

How to join a Glow Meet (3:38)

How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)

How to use the shared whiteboard in a Glow Meet meeting room (8:25)

Impact 

“Good morning Boghall” has had a positive impact right across the school.

For the pupils planning and running the programmes, they have learned a huge amount about how the media works and how news programmes are put together and presented. This has had an impact on their own presentation skills, raising their awareness of audience. They have also learned about how a video conference works and are completely comfortable setting up the equipment and opening up the Meeting Room for each broadcast.

As well as this, the pupils have learned the importance of fulfilling their responsibilities, and the impact it can have on others if they do not do so.

For Headteacher, Ann Duncan, the impact has been tremendous.  She has facilitated a way of bringing the whole school together to share information and communicate in an engaging way. She herself found this particularly useful recently, when, as a victim of the flight delays due to the volcanic ash cloud, she was stranded abroad. On returning to school on the Monday morning, she used the “Good Morning Boghall” Glow Meet as a way of letting the whole school community know that she was back, by speaking to them all through the web cam.

Good morning Boghall!5.055